» Posts Tagged ‘screenwriting’
Shawn Ryan, creator of The Shield and now The Chicago Code, is probably the best-known filmmaker to graduate from my alma mater, Middlebury College. Shawn broke into the industry after writing “thirteen or fourteen spec scripts,” a testament to his drive as a writer. In a pair of interviews I found myself reading and watching recently, Shawn gives excellent advice for aspiring writers. The first interview is actually by a classmate of mine, Astri von Arbin Ahlander conducted by Evan Dumouchel, who asked Shawn, “What advice would you give to young people as they develop their craft?”: More »
Screenwriter John August, whose blog is already a treasure trove of valuable information for screenwriters, has launched a new site compiled from his Q&As over the years. Whereas his blog is just that — a blog, arranged in reverse chronological order — the new site, Screenwriting.io, is designed to do one thing: automated Q&A. In John’s words, “there’s a need for high-quality answers to basic screenwriting questions.” The site is currently in beta and is looking for feedback, so go try it out and let ‘em know what you think!
Link: Screenwriting.io
Upstart Screenwriting Application Movie Draft SE Looks Promising
First of all, industry standard screenwriting software Final Draft is $70 off until Sept 30. But thanks to @navesink on Twitter, I found out about a new screenwriting program that brings some appealing changes to the table. Movie Draft SE is available through the Mac App Store for just $30 (“for a limited time,” though I don’t know how limited of a time we’re talking) with some very promising features. Chiefly I’m interested in the modularity of the scenes and the navigation sidebar, as demonstrated in this video: More »
My screenplay for Man-child (the project I’m currently trying to get funded with your help!) is one of twenty scripts that will be participating in IFP’s Emerging Narrative program a month from now. Put simply, Emerging Narrative is a program for screenwriters looking for a producer — a situation that many screenwriters and writer/directors find themselves in. Whether you’re participating in a program like Emerging Narrative or not, one way of helping producers better understand your project is to bring additional materials to the table besides your script. These materials might include a sample of a previous work you directed, another writing sample, test footage, a spec trailer, or a lookbook. A lookbook is a collection of stills culled from a variety of sources (not necessarily images you shot yourself) that convey what you want your movie to look like. Instead of using still images as is typical, however, I decided to make a multimedia lookbook: a collage of film and TV clips that demonstrate the aesthetic of Man-child. I hadn’t seen this done before, so I cut together clips from over a dozen films, and paired the visuals with a voiceover about some of the more technical aspects of Man-child — including what camera I’d like to shoot the film on, and a particular kind of camera stabilizer I’m planning on utilizing: More »
In 2003 AMC aired, as part of a series of docs about movie production, an hourlong episode entitled “Malkovich’s Mail.” Screenwriters all across the country were submitting unsolicited material to Mr. Mudd, a production company John Malkovich was associated with, and the doc is a look behind the curtain at what happens to the vast majority of these submissions. The doc walks a fine line between making fun of crazy screenwriters and sentimentalizing the pursuit, but ultimately finds a way to bring the viewer (and the screenwriters portrayed) a sense of satisfaction. All five parts of the doc are embedded below. I discovered the show via the excellent Filmmaker newsletter, where editor Scott Macaulay observes better than I can: More »
In-the-cloud screenwriting app Adobe Story is free until April 12th, 2012. I got a chance to use it recently (instead of my normal app — and industry standard — Final Draft) because I was in search of a two-column, A/V writing layout and I find Celtx’s A/V mode disappointing. In the process I found out Story now has an iPhone app that’s also free. Unlike the mobile version of Celtx, Story doesn’t let you edit the screenplay through iOS, but it does let you read scripts, add comments, read notes from others, and sync everything to the cloud. Adobe’s making a play to offer a complete script-to-screen solution, and Story is a central piece. Here’s the desktop version in action: More »
My daily sojourn to the coffee shop to work on my feature screenplay — of which I’m happy to report I’ve just completed a third draft — is often accompanied by the sight of other folks working on their own script. I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is probably the Aspiring Screenwriter capital of New York, so it’s a common sight. But I’ve been surprised recently at the number of times I’m seeing Celtx instead of Final Draft — probably due to the fact that the former is free. On the desktop, that is: the mobile version is $9.99, and just went version 2.0. More »
Screenwriter and blogger extraordinaire John August has released a very handy app for screenwriters (and script readers) called FDX Reader. In my limited experience I’ve found that the iPad is the perfect form factor for reading scripts in PDF format, but to date it hasn’t been able to read industry-standard Final Draft files. FDX reader solves that, and apparently works great with my file-synching utility of choice, Dropbox. Here’s a video of the app in action: More »
NAB ended a week ago, yet I feel like I’ve still got several roundup posts to write. However, I’ve been spending most of my days working on a screenplay in a nearby coffee shop because, like many people, I find something about the public space to inspire more creativity (or at least productivity). In the writing spirit, then, let’s enroll (virtually) in a master class from the Göteborg Film Festival, where brilliant screenwriter Charlie Kaufman held court for over an hour about his craft: More »
Every year the annual screenwriting challenge Script Frenzy asks participants to write 100 pages of script in 30 days. The grand prize? You win your own completed script. There are no awards other than the resulting feeling of accomplishment (and the movie that may get made as a result of your writing). I’m going to participate unofficially, as I have a just-completed hand-written first draft that I’m going to type up and revise twice in the month of April. Here are the official contest details: More »
Hours Don't Lie: Why Tracking Time = Getting Things Done (and Why to Live Abroad)
[photo: Darren Tunnicliff]
Plenty of us say we’re working on a [screenplay, novel, song, portfolio, website, acting career] while we we’re only [waiting tables, editing copy, being an assistant] to pay the bills. But the truth of the matter is, if we spend 40 hours a week doing [the latter] and we only find a few hours to do [the former], which of these tasks is more important to us?
The truest indicator of what’s important to us is the amount of time we devote to something. Not what we spend money on. No what we say we care about. So for the last 16 months, I’ve tracked my time religiously. What have I found? Hours don’t lie. Once you know where your hours are going, you can start changing your behavior in order to achieve your goals. More »
If you’re a screenwriter and you don’t live in LA, odds are you’ll be making a trip — or many trips — to LA in order to take meetings. 26-year old screenwriter Bradley Jackson (@BradleyJackson) has written a great guest post on John August’s blog about how to make the most of such a trip. Speaking from personal experience, when I was in LA with the project 3rd Rail, we had eleven meetings in three days: we had our pitch, we had a borrowed car, we had a primitive phone-based GPS, we had a full docket of meetings all around town, and we didn’t have a clue as to how to pitch or what to expect. Bradley’s post includes a lot of useful advice for screenwriters who might find themselves in a similar situation, and I wish his post existed before I went. Here’s one of his tips (a short film he wrote and directed is also embedded below). More »
Whenever I get an email from a filmmaker moving to (or thinking about moving to) New York, I always make sure to impart the following advice: join IFP. There’s no better way to become part of the indie film scene in the Big Apple. IFP puts on a few conferences a year, and this Saturday is the Script to Screen Conference, which as you can guess focuses on issues for screenwriters (and writer/directors). I was a panelist at last year’s conference, and I learned a lot just by sitting in the audience for the other panelist’s presentations. This year’s guests include Mark Heyman (Black Swan) and Barry Levinson (Diner, Rain Man, Sleepers), and also includes a Pitch Workshop. More »
Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) recently shared his top ten tips for screenwriting with 4Talent Magazine; screenwriter Danny Stack got their permission to reprint Whedon’s tips online. Here’s one of his tips: More »
Here’s an interesting idea. Scripped is a sort of Google Docs for screenplays, in that is stores your script in the cloud (making it accessible from anywhere, and theoretically impervious to data loss). There’s also an online community allowing realtime collaboration and feedback, and there are a number of ongoing screenwriting contests as well. Scripped is free to use, with upgraded features available as a paid subscription. Here’s a look at it in action: More »
Here are some quotes from an all-day Writers Guild seminar earlier in the year, wherein industry veterans talk about screenwriters using the internet to break into the industry. Another tip comes from John August, though you may not agree: use an email address from Gmail or your own domain. John’s one of the panelists here: More »
About a year ago I bought the first version of Scrivener, a Mac writing app that falls somewhere between a structuring/outlining application and a proper word processor/screenwriting application. It’s an intriguing proposition, with virtual notecards, a nice full-screen writing mode, and plenty of other bells and whistles. Since adding it to my dock, however, I haven’t found myself using it that often — though I’m not sure if it’s through any fault of the software or just because I tend to outline the old-fashioned way (with pen and paper). Still, there’s a new version that’s just been released after a long development cycle, and it’s worth checking out if you’re a screenwriter or any other kind of long-form writer. More »
This is an oldie but goodie. David Mamet wrote an impassioned memo to his writers on the now-cancelled show The Unit
In the NoFilmSchool newsletter — which you should subscribe to, if you’re not already, because it includes exclusive content not contained on this site — I recommend beginning screenwriters check out the free screenwriting software Celtx. You won’t find many pros using it (with Final Draft being the industry standard), but you can’t beat it for the price. Now, thanks to FilmmakerIQ there’s also a huge compilation of training resources for the screenwriting program. More »
One of the more popular screenwriting blogs out there, Johnaugust.com is (fittingly enough) the site of screenwriter John August (Go
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